Kross-European Song Contest of 1952
This was the 27th edition of the contest and was held in 1952. Kross Company again collaborated with RECORDZA and EmbeX for the edition of the contest. The contest was to be hosted in the 2nd week of May like the 1950 contest with semi finals on the Wednesday and Thursday and the final on the Saturday. This meant the first semi final would be held on 14th May 1952, the second semi final on the 15th May 1952 and the Grand Final on 17th May 1952. As a result of the contest getting bigger, the makers of the contest wanted to add more stuff to each show such as an interval act. The winner from 1951 would return as an interval act during the final along with three indie singers of the time in the city nearby. This extended the final to barely 3 and a half hours long. Another innovation is the use of having all participants, even those knocked out in the semi finals, vote in the final. This extended the final but had a bigger range to find the winner. For example, had the old system been in place, Norway would've come second but in the new system, Wales came second. Hosting Prokopis Stefanidis decided early that he did not want Berlin to host due to roadblocks. Dresden was later decided in a poll over other candidate city, Leipzig. Participants So far, only 24 participants are confirmed although there are more likely to confirm before the contest begins. The countries sing a national selection are: The following countries using internal selection are: * Albania * Belgium * Bulgaria * Czechoslovakia * East Germany * Finland * Hungary * Iceland * Ireland * Israel * Malta * Monaco * Poland * Portugal * Romania * RussiaBecause of tensions with the Soviet Union over the Korean War, the Soviets did not participate but a Russian delegation hosted in the United Kingdom did participate (would replace the Soviet Union in all official rankings). Because the delegation was not hosted in Russia, they didn't bother trying to host a national selection. * WalesA welsh song originally meant to be in the United Kingdom Decides but later taken out and used for Wales' song when it was revealed they would debut. * Yugoslavia The following countries selecting their with a different method are: * Austria (2nd place of Germany's national final) * Cyprus (2nd place of Greece's national final) * Luxembourg (2nd place of France's national final) * San Marino (2nd place of Italy's national final) * Liechtenstein (2nd place of Swiss' national final) Grouping The following countries automatically qualify: * Netherlands * Italy * Switzerland * United Kingdom * France Controversially, the host and winner of the previous edition were not guaranteed spots in the final. The countries didn't mind this but wanted the automatically qualifying big five to also not be guaranteed which did not happen however by the time this was introduced, many countries had already signed contracts meaning they could no longer withdraw from the contest. There were 34 countries total and without the 5 auto qualifiers, the remaining 29 countries would be split into 4 pots of 6 and 1 pot of 5. The pots were sorted geographically. EmbeX announced that the if both Germany, Austria and Luxembourg are in the same contest, they will be in the same pot. Semi Final 1 TL = Total; PV = Public vote; PC = placing; Q means Qualified or not. (Y is YES, N is NO). The voting system was 1pt, 2pt, 4pt, 6pt, 8pt, 10pt and 12pt. 7 will qualify from this semi final. The qualifiers from the first semi final are: * Wales with 161 points. * Russia with 159 points. * Ireland with 150 points. * Sweden with 149 points. * Denmark with 140 points. * Greece with 126 points. * Hungary with 117 points. Semi Final 2 TL = Total; PV = Public vote; PC = placing; Q means Qualified or not. (Y is YES, N is NO). The voting system was 1pt, 2pt, 4pt, 6pt, 8pt, 10pt and 12pt. 7 will qualify from this semi final. The qualifiers from the second semi final are: * Czechoslovakia with 206 points. * Norway with 198 points. * Germany with 166 points. * Israel with 147 points. * Cyprus with 127 points. * Malta with 118 points. * Spain with 107 points. Results This would be the first edition where the countries who didn't qualify would still give their scores. This means the scoreboard will be split into 2. The first is the countries who are in the final's juries and the second are the non-participating countries along with televote and the total. There are 19 countries in the final and 15 countries who are not. Each country would use the traditional 1-8pt, 10pt and 12pt system. Bekaert Awards Maris Francis later went on to become the directer of contests in 1954. Incidents * East Germany, winner of the 1951 contest, would usually be given a seat for their win the previous year but controversially was not given a seat as an automatically qualifier due to controversial issues arising with the Stalin Note and problems with their broadcaster. References